Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi laid the foundation stone for a petroleum refinery project of Nagarjuna Oil Corporation Limited (NOCL) here Wednesday.

NOCL managing director S. Rammohan said the 6 million tonne per annum (tpa) project has achieved financial closure and the refinery located near Cuddalore will go on stream in 36 months.

The Rs.47.90 billion project will have a debt-equity ratio of 2:1 and the debt portion will be funded by an IDBI-led consortium of bankers.

According to R. Sankaran, president - projects, the refinery's product slate consists of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), naphtha, regular/premium gasoline (euro III and IV), diesel (euro III and IV), kerosene/jet fuel, coke, bitumen and sulphur.

NOCL plans to expand the refining capacity to 15 million tpa with a petrochemical complex, petrochemical special economic zone and develop various businesses like petro retail, LPG import and storage, LPG bottling and auto LPG retailing.

Nagarjuna group chairman K. Raju said the group was looking at the possibility of getting into gas exploration overseas.

The group is also building an all-weather port at Thiruchopuram near Cuddalore at an outlay of Rs.15 billion. The port is expected to handle coal imports by the thermal power plants.

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